A sweet series of interconnected stories that ultimately fails to dazzle.
A series of quests in Tokyo turn out to be related.
It’s after midnight in Tokyo, and something is missing. Mitsuki Sawatari is at the prop warehouse, searching for an obscure artifact to meet a movie director’s exacting specifications. Mitsuki is tasked with tracking down whatever an artist requires, whether it’s out-of-season fruit or potentially nonexistent household appliances, no matter the hour. When the resourceful procurer is out of ideas, she turns to Matsui, a late-night cab driver and her confidante. Amiable and professional, Matsui is loath to divulge the details of his own quest to his customers. Still, when a young man who may or may not be a detective hops into his cab one night, his curiosity is piqued and he’s tempted to ask him for help. He discusses the matter with another customer, Kanako Fuyuki. Kanako’s job at the Tokyo No. 3 Consultation Room has taught her to answer all manner of questions. Though she can counsel a broken heart or find watercolors before daybreak, she too has a person from her past who cannot be found. The cast seems to grow exponentially with each chapter. Every interaction, however cursory, unlocks new pathways, catalyzes relationships, and nudges at fate. To Matsui, those connections happen, not despite the size of Tokyo, but because of it: “When you consider that every person has their own connections, that those networks spread out in a myriad of intricate ways, you realize that the greater the number of people, the greater the rate of the spread, like a contagious disease.” There’s something magical about these late-night fairy-tale interactions, every person unwittingly walking the city with the key to a stranger’s mystery in their pocket. As the coincidences grow in number, though, their impact turns feeble, and the final twists of fate underlying the premise have an air of resignation.
A sweet series of interconnected stories that ultimately fails to dazzle.Pub Date: July 9, 2024
ISBN: 9798889660279
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
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